RIYADH, 5 July 2004 — The Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI) will set up a center providing technical and support services to Saudi businessmen in preparation for the Kingdom’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Abdul Rahman S. Al-Kanhal, assistant secretary-general for economic affairs at CSCCI, said the council approved the proposal to set up the center early next year.
Tenders were invited from various consultants, and feasibility studies for the project will be conducted by King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran.
The feasibility study will take five months.
He said the center, which will function under the umbrella of the council, will give technical and allied support to agricultural, industrial, commercial and other businesses.
“The center will also set up training programs where experts from the WTO will address the participants,” the chamber official said.
It will also provide Arabic translations of WTO documents and other reference material.
“At present there is an awareness gap in the business community on the activities of the WTO and how it can help in solving their various problems. We want to bridge this gap through this service center by organizing seminars and conferences,” Al-Kanhal said.
The Kingdom first applied for membership of the WTO’s predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1993 and for WTO membership two years later. Access was earlier slated for early this year, but the membership bid appears to have hit a brick wall in the form of US insistence the Kingdom stop providing gas below market prices to Saudis.
Before the Kingdom can submit its application, it needs to conclude bilateral agreements with all member states. The agreement with the US remains the only one to be finalized. Although the Kingdom has undertaken comprehensive economic, administrative and judicial reforms, much remains to be done in the educational and other sectors. According to a WTO official, negotiations on the Saudi accession will continue after the summer break.
Fresh meetings between the Saudis and some of their future trading partners in Geneva this week “did not produce the expected breakthrough,” the official said in remarks from Geneva.
